Go Vegetarian for the Environment

There are many reasons to go vegetarian.  Here are some effects of meat production and livestock agriculture on the environment- reasons why you should cut meat out of your diet for a greener Earth.

• It uses over 80% of the agricultural land area in the US- over half of the total land area of the country
• It uses hundreds of billions of gallons of water every day for crop irrigation
• It uses more energy than the less developed countries uses for all purposes
• Contributes to deforestation in the US and in the tropical forests of Central and South America, where forests are being cleared at the rate of 25-100 acres a minute
• Produces soil erosion amounting to several billion tons of soil lost every year
• Produces large amounts of CO2, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere
• Leads to desertification that renders once-fertile land barren
• Causes extinction of indigenous plant and animal species
• Commercial fishing industry has pushed entire oceanic ecosystems to the brink of collapse
• More than one-third of all fossil fuels produced in the US goes to raising animals for food
• Run-off from factory farms pollutes waterways more than all other industrial sources combined
• Massive amounts of excrement emits toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia into the air
• Produces more greenhouse gases than all SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in world combined